It’s not that men have never been marketed to before - advertisements for cologne, razors and deodorant have always been common - but the nature of the ads has changed. Where we once saw a super buff stud emerging from the water in all seriousness (for Davidoff’s ‘Cool Water’, for example) we now see Isaiah Mustafa atop a gleaming white stud (literally), log-rolling and sand-blasting a countertop saying, essentially, “you’re not as smokin’ hot as me but you can smell as awesome if you use Old Spice.”

The newest ads are a helluva lot funnier than they once were and, according to Peter Ignazi, Senior VP and Executive Creative Director at BBDO Toronto, it’s not only good fun - it’s to make the biggest splash. “Being funny and using outlandish ways of speaking to men is a way to make them feel more at ease with using cosmetics.” Employing the dude-est men doing the dude-est of things, and being funny about it, allows men feel it’s feasible to want smooth skin and still be a manly-man.

Using tongue-in-cheek humour is undoubtedly on trend, but it’s not the youngest crowd advertisers are speaking to. Youthful guys are generally more hip to the use of cosmetics but, until recently, mature men have required something more to activate a purchase. As such, advertisers were more challenged when speaking to a male crowd. Today, and with the advent of social media, they can afford to be more transparent. Since social sharing became a measure of success, advertisers began using in-your-face hilarity (remember the $12 shave club?) to trim the fatty rhetoric and reinforce to older men that primping is commonplace and a-OK.

The truth is men have been interested in good grooming habits much longer than the industry has given light to. Women often share stories of how their favourite skin cream disappears faster than they could use it and, formerly, men may not have admitted to being the culprit. Now that they’re more aware of their appearances, and gender norms are slowly receding, men are easing into the wonderful world of beauty.

Jeremy Freed, Editor-in-Chief of SHARP Magazine and Book for Men says grooming is a hugely popular section of their content stream, and especially so in November when they run their annual ‘Grooming Guide’ - last year’s featured “71 ways to groom better every day.” Their readers’ reaction to the guide proves to Freed that men want to know how they can look their best, no matter which stage of life they’re in. His editorial team writes for a balanced male demographic that spans the guy who’s in his first corporate job and wants to stack up well next to his boss, and the guy who’s retired and can spend more time learning how to straight-blade shave. One area he’s not sure Canadian men are ready to explore, however, is makeup.

“I couldn’t NOT see it happening, but we’re not there yet. It would be quite the feat of marketing to convince the average North American ‘dude’ that wearing makeup is OK and he wouldn’t be made fun of for it.” I’d have to agree, but with ‘no-makeup’ makeup being so popular for us ladies, makeup on men isn’t that crazy a concept. Personally, I feel tickled that it is being explored by some men, even if it’s as entry-level as an under-eye concealer or tinted moisturizer.

Earlier this week, the alt-femme website Jezebel ran an article titled “Should Guys Wear Tinted Moisturizer?” and had a handful of men try it out. The testers were undoubtedly dude-ly and the outcome was subtle enough that numerous male commenters said, “yeah, why not then?” Tinted moisturizer, for men who may not know, is skin cream with a tiny bit of pigment that evens your complexion, or removes its redness and the sight of a breakout. It’s subtle, effective and couldn’t strip a man of his manhood if it tried.

The key to having more men give makeup a go may be in the terminology. What women call makeup, guys may prefer to call “tinted moisturizer” or even better, “BB Cream.” The latter title eliminates any hint of the word “makeup”, though the effect is the same - daily moisture and sun protection with a bit of surface-level improvement. What’s so bad about that?

Lab Series Skincare for Men recently released a “BB Tinted Moisturizer” that combines moisture with pigment and a broad-spectrum SPF35, and consumers’ reaction online reads positively. Perhaps its success lies within how well BB Cream blends in without giving up the fact that it’s technically makeup. Men don’t need to purchase a male-specific BB either, they can purchase whichever one they find first on the shelf that matches closest to their skin-tone, of course.

For bros who are curious and would like to explore, helpful how-tos are beginning to pop up online via blog posts and video tutorials. Pixiwoo, one of my favourite sites for learning, recently did a how-to video with a surfer who brightened right up with the help of a little tint.

I asked Grace Lee, lead makeup artist for Maybelline Canada, what guys need to build the manliest of makeup kits, and she said it’s as simple as picking up these three things:

Very clever and accessible marketing campaigns are helping to reel men into comfort with cosmetics but, in this case, the chicken may have come before the egg. Men, feel free to jump in the makeup pool. The water’s warm, we promise.

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